Dara Torres showed part of her very interesting dry-land training on the
the CBS Early show this am. I would characterize it as very kinetic
weight lifting, ala kettlebells, but with various equipment. She also
stresses the need to rest and has stretching coaches stretch her 3 times
per week. I tried to find video, but there doesn't seem to be any on
the CBS website.
I don't remember the exact figures, but she now does about one-third of
the swim training that she used to do per week.
Madelaine
runnswim@
aol.com (Larry Weisenthal) wrote:
> Dara Torres is amazing. My heroine.
>
> Have to tell a personal story. In May of 2000, Dara was swimming in a
> pre-Olympic event in Irvine. My Dad (then 86) and I were timing in
> lane 4. Dara had several races that day, where she was in lane 4 and
> Jenny Thompson in lane 5. Thompson was all concentration and focus.
> Dara was all fun and games. She was then 33 and introduced herself to
> my father and smiled and even did a little pretend flirt with him.
> Then just got up on the blocks and won the race. Later on, she came
> up for her next race, tapped my Dad on the shoulder and said "I'm
> baaaack." And won again.
>
> What a terrific, terrific young woman. My Dad's now 94 and he watched/
> cheered every one of her races this week. Called me up, just to make
> sure I was watching, too (duhhh, as if I'd miss it).
>
> Dara was concerned about the potential for doping accusations. She
> enrolled in an accelerated testing program (Phelps is in it, also),
> wherein she gets BOTH urine and blood tests, on frequent intervals, as
> well as providing "banked" samples for future testing, with future
> technology. This doesn't provide 100%% proof, but it's all she can do
> to convince everyone that she's clean.
>
> Dara does benefit from having had very wealthy parents (she recently
> lost her father). She travels with a real entourage of personal
> coaches, trainers, psychologist, masseuse, etc. This is a definite
> advantage, but, again, she's 41 and she's got to swim the races,
> herself.
>
> On to Erik Vendt. He's such a class guy, but, what a bone-headed
> mistake. Swims 14:50 in prelims one day before finals; then, not
> surprisingly, flames out, going 15:07 in finals and not making the
> team (I think he'll still go in the 4 x 200 relay).
>
> Wondering about Larsen Jensen. As noted earlier, he's training with
> SprintSalo (Dave Salo) and he's clearly much faster in the 400 (where
> he finished 1st in 3:43), but he clearly ran out of gas in the 1500.
> So maybe the increased speed did come at a cost.
>
> Peter Vanderkay's 14:45 was pretty special. He looked to be on cruise
> control and the swim looked easy.
>
>
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/beijing_olympics/story/0,27313,23980665-5014197...
>
> - Larry Weisenthal
>
>
>
>
